Lyrics to
Paper Thin Hotel

This version of Paper Thin Hotel was released by Leonard Cohen in 1977.

Our Leonard Cohen Songs profile has Paper Thin Hotel lyrics from 1977 and most if not all of the lyrics by Leonard Cohen that we have here at Decade Lyrics.

Here's more interesting things in songs and lyrics tied to Leonard Cohen or about the 1970s in general.

The walls of this hotel are paper-thin
Last night I heard you making love to him
The struggle mouth to mouth and limb to limb
The grunt of unity when he came in
I stood there with my ear against the wall
I was not seized by jealousy at all
In fact a burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control
A heavy burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control

I listened to your kisses at the door
I never heard the world so clear before
You ran your bath and you began to sing
I felt so good I couldn’t feel a thing

I stood there with my ear against the wall …

And I can’t wait to tell you to your face
And I can’t wait for you to take my place
You are The Naked Angel In My Heart
You are The Woman With Her Legs Apart
It’s written on the walls of this hotel
You go to heaven once you’ve been to hell

A heavy burden lifted from my soul
I heard that love was out of my control

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Leonard Cohen has released many songs over the years besides Paper Thin Hotel. Leonard Cohen released songs from 1967 to 2004 spanning across albums like Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Songs From A Room, Songs Of Love And Hate, New Skin For The Old Ceremony, Death Of A Ladies' Man, Recent Songs, Various Positions, I'm Your Man, The Future, Ten New Songs, and Dear Heather. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Leonard Cohen.

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About Lyrics and Paper Thin Hotel by Leonard Cohen

The lyrics for Paper Thin Hotel are made up of the words, verses and background chorus for the popular 1977 song by Leonard Cohen. Like a lot of songs, the lyrics to Paper Thin Hotel have both direct meanings and metaphorical context hidden within the song's words. All of the meanings are only truly known by the creators of the lyrics for Paper Thin Hotel - Leonard Cohen and any of the writers who worked with them on the song.

If you have an interest in the structure of words and phrases, you can dissect the lyrics to Paper Thin Hotel by Leonard Cohen in multiple ways. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Paper Thin Hotel" means the words set to the music of Paper Thin Hotel, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Leonard Cohen. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Paper Thin Hotel and the lyrics to Paper Thin Hotel are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Leonard Cohen who came here looking just for the lyrics to Paper Thin Hotel, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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